Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Hello Everyone, It's Wednesday again so that means it's time for Cuttlebug Challenge, and this week we are 'sanding' the embossing!With the introduction of Core'dinations colour core cardstock, and other similar products, this is an easy and effective thing to do with your embossed pieces. It also works with any cardstock that has a white core too, and that's what i've used for my card today :)

All papers are from my Basic Grey 6 x 6 pad 'Urban Prairie' and as i am sure you are aware BG papers are very high quality, more like thin card......and have a white core, so are perfect for sanding once embossed!The chipboard Butterfly is from the UP collection as well, and i've also used some of my American Crafts velvet ric-rac and some Kanban 'bling'.My card base is A6, cut from a piece of 12 x 12 as i wanted the fold at the top!

This is the last CB challenge of 2008.......so why not join in with this easy one this week, and we'll see you all in 2009!! for more fab challenges :).......... 'HAPPY NEW YEAR' and may it be a safe and healthy one for you all ;-D

Tuesday, 30 December 2008

It's been quite a while since i joined in with a challenge over at House Mouse & Friends......same old story..........not enough time, which i'm sure most of you can relate to!! However......with a little more time than usual this week, as i don't have to return to work until Friday(!) and most of the fab challenge sites have extended their timings as well, so it all helps :)This gorgeous image is called 'Making a Wish' and with the amount of effort that little guy is putting in to blow out the candle i sure hope he gets what he wished for!!

The requirement for challenge #19 is embossing, so i decided to use my 'Happy Birthday' Cuttlebug folder which i've also sanded to show the white core. The papers are Basic Grey 'Urban Prairie' from the 6 x 6 pad. I also used my Nesties Labels 2, to cut the mats from DCWV cardstock and my corner rounder punch with the wings removed to make the scallops. The velvet ric-rac is American Crafts from my bumper box of 54 rolls(another fab Chrissie present, from my fab husband!)Chipboard button ribbon and twine from my stash :)...................................................my other fetish.........ribbons.......lush!!!! ;-D

Thanks for popping in today......see you tomorrow for Cuttlebug challenge! :)

Sunday, 28 December 2008

After having a little play around with my new 'Bittersweet' goodies, i decided to see if i could find a challenge to play along with and found that Sketch Saturday had a suprise for us!..........So.....as my stuff was still spread out on the table.........i came up with this one!

My design for this A6 card is based on Sketch #28 by Mariska Dec 6th.

I've used some more scrumptious papers from the'Bittersweet' 6 x 6 pad, along with an Olio rub-on and some glazed brads. The chipboard ovals are Maya Road, covered with some more of the papers.The Thank You rub-on is also BG from a Wholy Cow set, and the ribbon is from my stash.

Thanks to Jo for the suprise, and thanks to you for your visit today.......see you soon ;-D

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Well that's Christmas done & dusted for another year! We had a wonderful time with the family,short but very sweet :) They are all so busy these days, but thankfully still want to come to Mum & Dad's for Christmas, which actually means a lot more to me than any other gift!

However........one of my most favourite things that i found in my stocking, was this little lot ;-DThanks Rhianna..........i LOVE it!!!!

The latest collection from my beloved Basic Grey.....'Bittersweet'.......it's like falling into a big pile of chocolate and candyfloss! Yummy!!!!

I was so eager to get started with this yummy collection, and as soon as my gorgeous lot had all gone home with happy hearts and full tummies.............out came the stash!All papers and rub-on from the collection, along with some bits & bobs from my stash. The chipboard heart frame was a gift with an order from a few weeks back. The pom-pom trim and netting is Bazzill,and the heart pin is Fancy Pants. Card base is A6.

Off now to see if i can find a challenge or two! Thanks for popping in today......

Would you like to visit a Sale without being elbowed, trodden on, or barged by other angry shoppers with loads of bags?...........Of course you would.....and the best part is you can shop from the comfort of your armchair.........

What's more, you don't even have to queue at some ridiculous hour of the day!!..........Head on over now and grab yourself a bargain! Ends midnight GMT on 3rd Jan.

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

I would like to introduce you to our new girls! Please join me in welcoming Button, Flopsy, Daisy and Speckle........the newest members of the Houghton family :)

My lovely husband Andy drove to Allesley in the West Midlands last Saturday to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust to collect these hens and bring them home to Bedford, hopefully for a long and happy retirement.

The aim of the BHWT which is a registered charity, is to see increased support for British free range farmers and see diminishing sales of eggs from caged hens! They purchase these hens from the farmer on slaughter day, so that people like us can re-home them as pets.

These gorgeous girls were kept in a wire cage the size of one sheet of A4 paper for the last year, unable to even stand upright or stretch their wings, no longer viable for the farmer as they are not producing one egg per hen per day!!

I would love it if you could visit the website and take a good look around it.......maybe you are not able to home some of these ex-bats.....but you may be able to help them in other ways! By making a few simple adjustments to your shopping, YOU can be directly responsible for helping to release a battery hen from her cage.I will continue to document their progress over the coming weeks. they have settled in rather well, but cannot be allowed to roam free in our garden, or mix with our other four bantams and two ducks for a few weeks. They have to be introduced to the world very gradually because of their previous environment!..........maybe, spare a thought next time you go to the store to buy eggs........please try free range! ;-D

Sunday, 21 December 2008

...is the requirement this week over at DCM. The one thing i had forgotten is how difficult it is to get a good photo of traditional embossing with powder! Gosh! how many did i have to take to get these two that are still only half decent!!!!.........Anyway.....here is my design for the dare!

After all the picture taking......i've noticed that the image isn't quite level! Grrrr!!

The image is an old stamp by PSX, which i've embossed with metallic silver E.P. onto white card. This has then been mounted onto some matt metallic gold card, and i've used my Fiskars 'Threading Water' punch at the base and threaded fine silver organza through the holes!

The silver background paper is in fact wallpaper.....something that i used to do lots of when i first started cardmaking........a very inexpensive alternative to Designer Paper! (most DIY shops will still allow you to have pieces from their sample rolls!) The card base is A6.

Friday, 19 December 2008

'How lovely are your branches'........no cards from me today, but i thought i would show you a little picture of my main tree!I am off to my Office Christmas Party this evening in rather a swanky hotel! so i need to go jump in the bath and try to make myself look beautiful!! I may not be in any fit state to craft tomorrow..............we'll have to wait & see :-D

Hope all my lovely visitors are enjoying the festivities so far...........see you soon!

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Another great sketch this week by Tamara, and of course Thursday means one day closer to the weekend! Yay!!! I do love my weekends :)

For my design today i decided to get a bit 'loved up' with this valentine card. A little break was needed from all the Christmas stuff! and also i was desperate to play with my new papers :)

The papers i've used today are Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar 'Be Mine' and some KI Memories 'Heartbeat Hottie' glitter lace cardstock. A portion of Bazzill 'just the edge' was used for the scallop effect at the base of the card......... the lettering and rub-on are Basic Grey and the ribbon and gems are from my stash.

Short and sweet today..... busy, busy.........but i do hope you can find time to play along this week as it's the last before the Christmas break...... this time next week we will all be waking up to see what Santa has left us!!

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Cuttlebug time again :) and the fab challenge this week is to make a criss cross card! I have made one of these before using Beate's great tutorial here. However i found that it didn't fit our envelopes here in the u.k.. so for this one today i changed the size a bit to make sure it will fit in!I have used the Snowflake embossing folder throughout. The papers this time are Dream Street, the colours are gorgeous as are the designs, especially the one with the little snowmen! which as you can see i've cut them out and layered up on foam tape.I'm afraid i don't have the punch to create the tab for the top, so i compromised :) The button and twine are from my stash.

Everyone is super busy at this time of year, but it would be great if you joined in with us, this card was fun to make and renmember to link up so we can all come and see your work! ;-D

Thanks for your time today.........see you tomorrow with some more DT stuff!

Monday, 15 December 2008

Oooh this is a first time for me! but as you probably know by now i am a bit of a sketchaholic!! and the sketch this week over at SCSC is fab, so.................here is my card :)

I have chosen to use some gorgeous Cosmo Cricket papers today from the 'Be Good' collection, and my card base is Kraft cardstock, which i am really enjoying at the moment!

My image is of course Penny Black from the Holly Day Critters set and depicts this cute mousey playing in the snow, coloured in my usual manner with Distress inks. The sentiment is HOTP and a Colorbox cats eye in Chestnut Roan was used on the edges of the papers.

Hubby and I are off to Milton Keynes in a while to start & hopefully!......finish our Christmas shopping!!! I hope it's not too crowded! ;-D

Thanks for your visit today, leave me a note so i have something to look forward to after my shopping spree!!

Sunday, 14 December 2008

The challenge for us this week is 3 flowers, 2 papers, and 1 ribbon......and here is what emerged!

My Christmas card stash is looking quite healthy so i dedided on a Valentine card instead...... for us cardmakers that is the next event that comes around so i thought i would get a head start!

The image is called 'You're A Treasure' and could be used for lots of occasions! I coloured in my normal fashion using ink directly from Distress ink pads using a water brush. The papers are Basic Grey from the 6 x 6 pad 'Urban Prairie' and i've also used a small strip of Bazzill 'just the edge'. The ribbon is Cosmo Cricket, and my 3 flowers were cut from some Doodlebug 'boutique trim' The rub-ons are Cosmo Cricket and were used to hide a wretched smudge that happened as i was assembling my card, and were all i could think of to hide it!....hope it's worked..... ;0)

Family round today as usual for a Sunday......home made chicken pie today! a family favourite.....well apart from Andy who is vegetarian!!! he will be having Chick pea and herb patties........so better get a move on!

Friday, 12 December 2008

Yep! that's the challenge over at DCM this week..... make a card that only takes a few minutes!

Well... this one was super quick and literally only took me ten minutes to make!

I used a white pre-folded card blank and ran as much of it as i could through the Cuttlebug using the snowflake folder, scored two lines across the top and tied a small piece of ribbon around between the lines. I added a tiny punched star with a gem centre.

I inked up some white card with cats eyes and then stamped the Hero Arts image(my favourite Christmas stamp!) over the top with black Archival ink, i then matted it onto some black Bazzill mounted with foam tape! Ta Da!!.........job done :)

The challenge this week on Tag You're It is to use the colours Brown & Aqua........wasn't certain that i had any papers in these colours, but i do have rather a lot of pretty papers..........and these are what i found........The papers are an older range from DCWV which i've had for ages..... to be honest i forget exactly what i do have because my craft stash is kept in lots of different places around the house........pain!! but unavoidable!!

I used my label Nesties to cut the mats from Bazzill cardstock and added some fibres and ribbon from stash. The flowers are Prima and i've given them some Kanban 'bling' centres. I did a little bit of paper pricking too! and the dragonfly is stamped with Adirondack 'espresso' and is by Laxmi Designs.

I'm hoping to get a few more challenges done this weekend, so hopefully.....i'll see you soon! ;-D

Thursday, 11 December 2008

My lovely friend and fellow Funky Hand DT mateKath, has just won ............

CARD DESIGNER OF THE YEAR 2008

held by Simply Cards & Papercraft here in the U.K................I do hope you will join me in saying......... very well deserved my friend :) and i for one will be looking out for more designs in the upcoming issues!

For my DT project this week i thought i would move away from Christmas Cards for a moment and use Tamara's fab sketch to design a Birthday card for my Son! He will be 25 on the 3rd of January.

Now, don't for a minute think i am mega organised.........i have not bought a single christmas gift yet!!!!!! Monday is the day when everything will be purchased as i am having a shopping fest in Milton Keynes.............my husband is coming to carry all the bags ;-DFor my design today i have used a corner style stamp by Design Objectives stamped with Archival black onto a circle of white card. I added a brad to the centre to hide a little smudge!

The papers are Basic Grey from the 'Ambrosia' 6 x 6 pad, and also the background pieces are from 'Scarlet's Letter'. I've also added a Letraset rub-down and some American Crafts thickers for the sentiment. The ribbon is from my stash.

I know everyone is very busy at the moment, but i do hope you get chance to play along with the sketch too! i would love to see your take on it :)

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

I've been desperate to try out my new deep cut blade for my Cricut machine which i purchased a couple of weeks ago, and the Cuttlebug Challenge this week gave me the perfect opportunity!

Challenge #10 is to create a Christmas/Holiday themed project - something other than a card!To create my little wall hanging i cut my snowflake using my brand new deep cut blade and Joys of the Season at 5.5 inches. Now....... not sure if it's because my chipboard isn't specific for crafting, or whether the blade is not as good as i expected......but i'm not impressed with the cut!!!! i had my setting on number 6, so it should have made a clean cut.... but sadly i still had to 'crack it out' from the remainder and use my craft knife to tidy it up!!! not very impressed really :(

Anyway.... i also used the snowflake cut & emboss duo, and the Swiss Dots folder, and some scraps of card and Doodlebug paper frill,the rub-ons are Stemma, and the bobble trim is Bazzill.

I edged my snowflake with 'snow cap' acrylic paint dabber and added some glamour dust as well, the letters are Basic Grey and the jute and gem are from my stash!

I would love to see what you create for this challenge so i do hope you play along, and leave a link so i can come and check you out!!!

Thanks for popping in today, and i'd love to know if you've had better success with your deep cut blades!..........see you soon ;-D

Saturday, 6 December 2008

I will be showing how i made these projects today! at Fidgeonscrafts in Letchworth., 10 am........so if you are in the area, i would love you to pop in and say Hi :) They have a Sale on as well!!!

HugsCarol x

E.T.A.... as i failed to return the unused product supplied to me by the store to create these projects......they have decided that they cannot offer me any further demonstations in the future!! ..... if any of the lovely ladies that i met on the day, who were hoping to see me return are reading this, then i can only apologise for a misunderstanding of a passing comment......resulting in this outcome.

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

We are welcoming Betty, who is the guest designer joining us this week over at Cuttlebug Challenges. This talented lady has devised a way of making your own embossing folders, using just a few basic supplies!.......Yes, you did read that correctly.....make your own folders!!!!!!!

Here is my folder...And this is the end result......

I am lucky to own a Cricut machine, so that proved a godsend for cutting my pieces to create my folder, but you can achieve equally good results using punches as well! make sure you pop over to see Betty's fab instructions........and please remember to link up if you have a go at this, so that we can all have a 'nosey' at how you got on!

Tuesday, 2 December 2008

The challenge this week is.......No Patterned Paper!....... for someone like me who is well and truly a paper addict, this could really prove a challenge!!! But hey! that's the idea isn't it?

As well as all the cute Hedgehogs and other gorgeous critters, Penny Black have some fabulous stamps in their range that are very elegant and beautiful.... and i'm glad to say i have some of each!

The bauble stamp used here is simply titled 'Brush Ornament' and today i have chosen to use Marvy brush markers to colour my image. The Christmas text stamp is from Paper Inspirations, inked with Adirondack 'Coffee'.

Ribbon and brass Star are from my stash and background cardstock is Bazzill. I also ran my little photo corner through the Cuttlebug snowflake folder :)

Thanks for popping in today, and check back tomorrow if you can to see the latest Cuttlebug Challenge.......a really 'nifty' one this week! ;-D